LA-based 3rd grade teacher with a deep love for technology and promoting diversity in the classroom! Hablo Español and un peu Français

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DIY Pin the Tail on the Donkey Game

Last week, my 5-year old and I were doing some coloring pages and we were feeling pretty tired of coloring. She started talking about a classmate’s birthday party that she was looking forward to attending, which made me think of my all-time favorite party game as a kid: Pin the Tail on the Donkey!

I explained to my 5yo how the game worked and how you take a paper tail and try to put it on an image of a donkey with a missing tail. She was interested in the game, but she came up with the most amazing idea–change the donkey to a unicorn! Instead of pinning the tail to a donkey, she suggested that we put a horn on a unicorn’s head.

To create the game, we first drew a picture of a cartoon unicorn. This was a great opportunity to explain how to draw animals using basic shapes such as a circle to make the face, an oval to make the body and rectangles to make the legs. On a separate paper, we used triangles to make the horn. My 5yo greatly enjoyed learning how to draw the unicorn and coloring it.

Afterward we taped the image of the unicorn to one of the windows and used a bandana as a blindfold. We took the paper horn and put a piece of tape on the back so that it would stick to the image. The objective is to place the horn as close to the top of the unicorn’s head as possible. To make the game more challenging (and entertaining), we spun the person 3 times before they tried to put the horn on the unicorn.

We had such a great time playing this game that we made other objects to stick to the unicorn including a necklace and a ribbon to decorate the tail. Pin the Tail on the Unicorn is definitely a unique spin to the traditional game, and it was a great opportunity to teach my 5yo shapes and drawing techniques.